Industry Conference Focuses on New Industry Leaders

UK - The NFU Poultry Industry Programme in partnership with ABN got underway this week with the 19 participants embarking on a seven-month scheme to create new industry leaders.

The first two-day session kicked off with introductions to ABN and the NFU, team-building exercises, media and social media training and a presentation from top American entrepreneur John Y Brown Junior who built KFC into an international success.

NFU President Peter Kendal also talked about the future of British poultry farming and how important is it for younger farmers to get involved in the NFU as well as in policy-making.

In the afternoon, the focus was on ABN and how poultry producers can get more from their feed company. Hugh Burton and Richard Burton, ABN Raw Materials managers, prepared an interactive feed buying game and gave an insight into how they can mitigate risks through the buying of raw materials. Up next was John Round who talked about poultry nutrition with national poultry specialist David Beavis finishing off the afternoon by talking about different techniques poultry farmers can use to improve farm management. The first day was brought to close with a dinner which was hosted by NFU poultry board chairman Duncan Priestner.

The second module saw the participants given an introduction to social media training by Lynsey Sweales the CEO of Social B. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter were all covered with many of the participants more engaged with social media concepts than before the presentation.

The group were then treated to a presentation from American entrepreneur and the KFC innovator John Y Brown Junior. Mr Brown bought the world-famous chicken restaurant chain from its founder Colonel Sanders in 1964 before selling off for a large profit seven years later and gave the young farmers advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur and how to take a local product to global markets.

The first event came to a close with the all the participants being provided with media training. The course was a success, with the trainers very impressed by the quality of the work done. The NFU could well have uncovered itself some of their future office holders or at the least some budding media stars

Programme lead and broiler producer Kinsey Hern said: “You don’t get much more successful in the chicken meat industry than what Mr Brown did in turning KFC into such a global brand and one which is still hugely successful today. Everyone found the two-day programme a big success. It brought together a like-minded group of individuals who instantly bonded and who share a great passion for the sector. I think everyone agrees that it will be exciting to see how far they can all go and how this programme will help create both industry leaders and, it must be said, a powerful network for the industry.”